Outside Jinan City, a group of cavalry surrounded Kublai Khan and galloped to the city gate. The Mongolian general Wu Lianghatai, who arrived first, stepped forward to hold the reins of his horse and said, "Your Majesty!"

Kublai Khan frowned, "Jinan is an empty city again?"

Wu Lianghatai replied: "Your Majesty, when I arrived with my troops, the city was already deserted. Li Fen is not a hero, he abandoned the city and fled."

Kublai Khan exhaled a white breath, turned over and dismounted, and climbed to the top of Jinan City with Wu Lianghatai and others. They saw that the streets in the city were desolate, and not even a person's hair could be seen.

"Your Majesty, the Li thieves are afraid of our Mongolian troops. It seems that the Shandong thieves are nothing more than local chickens and dogs." Although he didn't grab anything, Wu Lianghatai was quite excited.

Kublai Khan's plan was to attack Jinan, attract Zhao Tai and Wuxian to rescue him, fight Zhao Tai in a decisive battle in Jinan, and solve the Shandong problem in one battle.

Although Mongolia had a vast territory at this time, it was still a nomadic empire. It did not have a system like the Central Plains dynasties that ruled local areas and obtained money, grain, taxes, and soldiers from the local areas.

The shortcomings of the nomadic empire made it impossible for Mongolia to maintain the material supplies needed for more than 100,000 people to fight abroad for a long time.

If the land where they were fighting was rich, Mongolia could still defeat the enemy with food. However, the land in Shandong was depleted, and Zhao Tai and others wanted to clear the country, so Mongolia had to transport food through the rear to maintain the army's campaign in Shandong.

The Mongol Empire's logistics system has not yet been perfected, so for Kublai Khan, he hoped to defeat the enemies of Shandong as soon as possible.

Now that Li Fen was avoiding the war, Kublai Khan's previous plan failed.

"Where is Yang You?" Kublai Khan suddenly shouted loudly.

"Here is my humble post!" Yang You hurriedly came out. He was an old friend of Li Jun. He was familiar with the situation in Shandong and was taken by Kublai Khan.

Kublai Khan asked, "Are you familiar with the situation in Yidu?"

Yang You felt a shiver in his heart, but he saluted and replied: "Reporting to the prince, I am quite clear about the situation of Yidu."

Kublai Khan no longer hesitated and said, "In this case, if you follow Wu Lianghatai, attack Yidu, and eliminate Li Fen, you will be the director of Yidu Province."

Yang You's face was filled with joy and he quickly kowtowed his thanks, "Thank you for your support for your humble position. Your Majesty is a great kindness. I will never forget your humble position."

Li Fen hurriedly withdrew his troops from Jinan and opened up a passage south for Kublai Khan, allowing the Mongolian army to attack Pizhou directly. However, Kublai Khan was not in a hurry to go south.

Although the Mongolian army wanted to eliminate Zhao Tai as soon as possible, without defeating Li Fen in the east and Wuxian in the west, the army would go directly south to Pizhou and would easily be attacked by a three-pronged attack.

Therefore, as soon as Li Fen returned to Yidu, he learned that the Mongolian army was following and killing him. Li Fen was frightened and did not dare to fight. He followed the generals to defend Yidu and led the main force to flee eastward.

In early October, more than 100,000 Mongolian troops entered Shandong East Road. The Mongolian troops defeated Leshan, Shouguang, Zouping, Zichuan and other counties, Yidu, Weizhou, Gaomi, Anqiu and other places without fighting. Li Fen led the defeated army.

, retreated to Jimo, Wendeng and other cities.

After Kublai Khan's army entered Shandong, it only took half a month to cripple Li Fen. Then the army went west and attacked Dongping, Jeju, Caozhou, Shanzhou and other places under Wuxian's jurisdiction. Each city also fell one after another.

After the Mongolian army rushed left and right, Li Fen in the east of Shandong and the Wuxian tribe in the west almost lost all their territory. Kublai Khan then turned his attention to the south and aimed his spearhead at Zhao Tai in Pizhou.

In early November, the Mongolian army had occupied most of Shandong. Except for being ambushed by the armed guards at Liangshanbo and being led into the reed swamp and burned to death three thousand troops, the Mongolian army suffered almost no losses. Instead, it recruited tens of thousands of troops through Yang You.

This boosted Kublai Khan's confidence. After finding out that Zhao Tai was still in Pizhou, he decided to send troops and horses to conduct a test attack on Lunan.

On the seventh day of the lunar month, the Mongolian army forward came down from Jinan and entered the boundary of Yanzhou. Guarding this place was Zhao Tai's general Sun Li. He took advantage of the Mongolian army's contempt and voluntarily abandoned the state city. Taking advantage of the favorable terrain of Toni Hills, he formed a "Thousand God-Armed Archers"

"If the leader loses his team," he gave up the technique of firing all bows and crossbows, and instead fired three teams in turns, causing a continuous loss of arrows in the formation.

The Mongolian army attacked the hilltop, lost thousands of people, and retreated in a hurry.

When Kublai Khan received the news in Jinan, he was not surprised but overjoyed. When he saw that Zhao Tai's soldiers and horses did not flee, he immediately decided to send troops and horses to attack Yanzhou head-on. He led the main force up the Beiqing River, then went south along the canal and bypassed

Yanzhou, entered the hinterland of southern Shandong and cut off the connection between Yanzhou and Pizhou.

Tengzhou City.

The Mongolian army bypassed Yanzhou and after capturing this place, the city was quickly looted by the Mongolian army.

The old and weak people in the city were slaughtered by the Mongolian army, while the young and strong were driven outside the city to build camps and transport grain and grass for the Mongolian army, while the women were used for people's entertainment.

At the gate of Tengzhou City, Zhang Rou wore armor and stood in the doorway with her sword pressed, avoiding the whistling north wind and looking out from time to time.

Not long after, a group of people came galloping from a distance, about a hundred riders, mostly Mongolian cavalry, but there were a few Han generals in front.

When Zhang Rou saw the person coming, she immediately smiled and stepped forward to greet him. She cupped her fists at the person on the horse and said with a smile, "Manager Yang, it's been a hard journey."

This person was Yang You, Kublai Khan's favorite. Before Li Fen rebelled, he told Kublai Khan the news, allowing Kublai Khan to successfully escape from Jinan.

This time Kublai Khan led troops to attack Shandong, and he served as the guide for the army. He not only provided intelligence to the Mongolian army, but also helped Kublai Khan recruit and surrender many of Li Fen's tribe.

When Yang You saw Zhang Rou coming to greet her, he was a little flattered. He quickly got off his horse and returned the greeting, "How can I let Dashuai Zhang greet me? Dashuai Zhang is too flattering."

Zhang Rou turned sideways and said with a smile: "The prince is having a banquet and asked me to greet him. Manager Yang, please!"

Yang Youlian said he didn't dare, and went to the city with Zhang Rou. What they saw along the way were broken walls and corpses that had not been cleaned up, which was lamentable.

Not long after, Yang You followed Zhang Rou to the outside of the festival hall, and was stopped by the guards of the Xue Army. After handing over his weapons, he entered the festival hall.

At this time, in the lobby, the Mongolian nobles gathered, with a few Han generals sitting at the bottom, while Kublai Khan was at the top, talking in Mongolian with many Mongolian nobles, and the Mongolian generals below laughed loudly from time to time.

Zhang Rou led Yang You in and saluted Kublai Khan. After returning his life, Yang You immediately stepped forward and led the surrendered generals he had summoned to salute Kublai Khan. "You, Yang You of humble rank, pay homage to the prince!"

Kublai Khan put down his wine glass and waved his hand, "Get up and watch!"

Yang You immediately stood up with everyone and sat down next to Zhang Rou and other Han generals. As soon as he sat down, Kublai Khan raised his wine glass and said to everyone: "This time I am attacking Shandong, thanks to Yang You. If

If he hadn't made suggestions and provided intelligence for me, I wouldn't have captured most of Shandong so easily. We Mongolians always keep our word. This time Yang You has done a great job. When Zhao Tai is destroyed, I will ask you to take over Pizhou.

.”
Chapter completed!